Beauty In Simplicity: Legos Are Winning The Toy Industry

And that great movie with their name on it? It's only helping.

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They're the ubiquitously cheery building blocks of childhood imaginations. Stars of their own hit movie, and subsequently one of the funniest things on YouTube in a long time. There are 36 thousand molded a minute, for a total of 19 billion a year, and about 62 in existence for every single member of the Earth's population – more than 400 billion produced since 1958.

Which is around 86 times the amount of dollars they made last year, a very respectable $4.65 billion.This places them firmly in between toy leader Mattel, who pimped Barbie to $7.1 billion in revenue last year, and action figure staple Hasbro, which recently sold for just over $4 billion.

While the explosive popularity of The Lego Movie has no doubt helped to fuel their popularity, let's face it, we've always loved Legos. Hell, this time last year it was being reported that the Danish brick maker had seen growth of 25% and built three billionaires, even out-valuing Mattel for a hot minute. No small feat for a bunch of seemingly basic plastic blocks. 2013 saw their economic uptick slow slightly, but still construct a solid 10% increase; this in a world toy market that has non-electronic entries struggling and general overall growth slow, at just a hair over 1%.

Legos are just about the perfect toy, allowing you to start from scratch, build whatever world you want, and then immerse yourself in it. They've been inspiring us for generations, from the construction of amazing – life-sized X-Wing fighter anyone? – models, to charming photo projects, to this 12-year-old, who made a Lego Braille printer for just $350, a far cry less than the usual $2 grand you'd pay for a comparable, and traditional, machine. Their beauty lies in their simplicity, and ability to capture and harness our imaginations. You can follow the directions, or go rogue and make whatever kind of weirdness your little heart desires. They're the great toy equalizer, fun for kids and, it has to be said, adults, alike.

Our population spends 5 billion hours a year creating with 'em. Though this is, you know, slightly, less than the 3 billion hours a week spent on video games, how can you measure the value of an analog distraction from all those glowing screens?

The company's plans for 2014? Exactly what you'd expect from a fortune made on making things to make things with: keep on building atop that strong foundation. They've bolstered their global presence with new regional hubs in Singapore, Shanghai, and London joining existing ones in the United States and Denmark. They're looking to move their bricks into hands in less developed nations, where kids are far better off playing with something that challenges them than they are digging through the 50 million tons of technology trash we dump on 'em annually. Oh, and working towards their commitment to be 100 percent energy renewable by 2016, which means they'll not only produce enough green energy to power themselves, they'll be giving back to the grid.

Not too shabby for a family-owned business that began when a carpenter named Ole started making wooden toys in rural Denmark.